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With the First Amendment behind it, Google is now free to put search results in whatever order it wants, according to a recent ruling by a US court in San Francisco. The company has been fighting to earn this right for years, but it wasn't until last week that a judge in the Bay Area decided to grant the search giant such a thing, citing freedom of speech as the main influencer in the decision. It all started back when a site known as CoastNews filed a lawsuit arguing that Google was knowingly lowering its rankings in search results; the tech giant supposedly viewed it like a competitor and, thus, didn't want it to succeed. Shortly thereafter, Google quickly answered with an anti-SLAPP motion, which is often used by defendants to guard against litigation that would deter free speech.

A minor Canadian court dispute has resulted in a judge's far-reaching decision that Google must block a website's search results worldwide, not just in Canada. It arose from a case involving a company that stole its ex-partner's intellectual property and fled abroad to sell pirated equipment online. Following a court order, Google Canada pulled the rogue firm's search results, but it put up new sites faster than they could be erased. As a result, a judge ordered Google to spike all its links worldwide -- an unprecedented ruling against a search company. Google said that it would appeal to BC's highest court, claiming the judge overstepped her jurisdiction. Many legal critics also found the ruling puzzling, saying it could set a legal precedent limiting the right to free speech.

Google has finally reached a settlement in its long-running dispute with the European Commission over the way that it displays search results. From now on, it must give equal visibility to rivals like Bing and Yahoo when it shows ads for its own products and services, like hotel reservations or customer ratings. The EU has been probing Google for over three years now about its practices, and recently said that it would need to substantially improve its offer, and fast, or face a fine of up to $5 billion. Google's competitors accused it of burying their ads in its search results, and a recent offer to display them in a shaded box was sharply rejected. A way of showing such services so that they're "clearly visible" to consumers as equal to Google's will now be determined "objectively," according to the commission. Once that happens, it'll need to comply for at least five years.

Eric Schmidt himself took to the British press to announce that Google has made a big step in ridding its search results of links to underage sexual abuse -- with some image detection assistance from Microsoft. The Google chairman said he hired a 200-strong team to work out a solution over the last three months and that their work has already fixed up to 100,000 potential queries. The UK Prime Minister David Cameron has welcomed the news as "significant progress." He's also praised Google's previous set of measures, which displayed a warning to people attempting to search for illegal material and caused a 20 percent drop in illicit activity. For now, Google's newest improvements are limited to English-speaking countries, including the UK and US, although the search company says it'll roll out its adjusted search globally over the next six months, covering 158 more languages.

With over 154 million blogs on Tumblr, finding just what you're looking for can be a chore. Luckily, the company has made it easier by announcing a beefed up search function. The Yahoo-owned site can now process search requests with multiple hashtagged words or phrases, such as "#engadget #expand." Leaving the pound sign out produces more robust search results -- returning both officially tagged entries and ones that simply contain the query text. To make its explicit content filter more visible and less confusing, Tumblr moved it to the redesigned results page, which now also boasts a Filter menu that segregates posts by type. Finally, a scrollbar that displays relevant blogs joins these two features, which should make it easier to find new friends if yours left for greener pastures.

Well, it looks like you can soon expect to see yet moreinformationto the right of your Google search results. The company's announced today that it has begun integrating activity from certain apps into its results, with a number of music and movie services the first in line. Expectedly, the common denominator among them is that they all use Google+ as a sign-in option, which lets Mountain View pull together things like aggregate user activity and the most popular movies and music from Fandango, Deezer, Flixster, SoundCloud and a handful of others. As usual, those features are getting rolled out gradually, with the initial batch of app results said to be rolling out to desktop search over the next few weeks, and additional apps and improvements promised over time.

It may have retired from the cut-throat world of print, but Encyclopaedia Britannica is enjoying a renaissance by supplying results to Bing. Search for a topic and a Knowledge Graph-esque box will offer supplementary information to help you on your way. If it's a topic that the Britannica editors haven't gotten around to covering (Jersey Shore, for example) then the search engine will instead pull the information from Wikipedia, Freebase and Qwicki. Now we're just hoping Bing doesn't plan to revive those door-to-door booksellers, we're a sucker for a good sales pitch.

Google has been publishing what it's dubbed Transparency Reports for some time now -- detailing things like government requests to remove content from search results or requests for users' information -- and it's now added another big chunk of data to them in the interest of full disclosure. Starting today, you can see the number of removal requests it receives from companies over copyright and piracy concerns. As you can imagine, there's a lot -- over 1.2 million in the past month alone, a number that Google notes is increasing at a substantial rate. Among those asking for takedowns, Microsoft is by far the leader, filing well over half a million requests all by itself in the past month (the film and music industries are also, of course, well represented). You can pour through all the results yourself at the source link below.

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copyrightcopyright infringementCopyrightInfringementgooglemicrosoftpiracysearchsearch resultsSearchResultstakedowntakedownsThu, 24 May 2012 20:24:00 -040021|20244821http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/11/microsoft-tops-yahoo-in-us-search-results-for-first-time-accord/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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It very nearly caught up to Yahoo in the last round of ComScore figures, and Microsoft has now finally done it -- it can officially claim to be the number two search engine in the US. According to the research firm, Microsoft's Bing search engine and other websites fielded a total of 2.75 billion search requests in December of 2011, compared to 2.65 billion search requests handled by Yahoo -- translating to a market share of 15.1 percent and 14.5 percent, respectively. As you'd expect, that still leaves Microsoft far behind Google, which processed a whopping 12 billion search requests during the month, representing a still-dominant market share of 65.9 percent. Hit the source link below for all the numbers.

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bingcomscoregoogleinternetmarket shareMarketSharemicrosoftsearchsearch enginesearch enginessearch resultsSearchEngineSearchEnginesSearchResultsyahooWed, 11 Jan 2012 19:58:00 -050021|20146786http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/google-introduces-your-world-search-results/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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As Google presses forward with its social network initiative, it only makes sense that the company famed for comprehensive search results would naturally bring Google+ along for the ride. That day is now upon us, as the juggernaut from Mountain View has officially unveiled Your World -- an addition to its search results that prioritizes content generated by you and those in your circles. Now, the company hopes it'll be much easier to find relevant photos, blog posts and contacts from the Google search bar, which includes content both public and private. In effort to keep security in check, all searches will be performed by default over SSL. Additionally, skeptics may opt-out of Your World at any time. For those looking for the best of both worlds, a toggle at the top-right of the page allows users to choose on-the-fly whether to include personalized results. It all looks quite slick -- in fact, we wouldn't be too surprised if another social networking company just threw up a little.

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cesces 2012Ces2012googlegoogle plusGooglePlussearchsearch enginesearch enginessearch resultsSearchEngineSearchEnginesSearchResultssocial networksocial networkingSocialNetworkSocialNetworkingsslYour WorldYourWorldTue, 10 Jan 2012 09:30:00 -050021|20144284http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/03/google-search-promises-to-get-fresh-with-you/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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After weathering some less than enthusiastic receptions to Gmail and Google Reader revamps, not to mention the long awaited launch of a Gmail app for the iPhone, the Google upgrade train just keeps on rolling along. This time out, Mountain View is targeting its real bread and butter: search. Google is harnessing its Caffeine indexing system to offer up fresher results -- a change that will apparently affect around 35 percent of the site's searches. The new results include more up to the minute results, prioritization for recent happenings and more frequent updates.

Google's been on a creative tear lately, rolling out new products and revamping older ones. But there's a reason the phrase "search giant" is synonymous with Big G, and it's always working to return better results. Sometimes that means tweaking its algorithm to prevent SEO-gaming; other times it means dropping over 11 million sites from search results, as the company just did in blocking the .co.cc subdomain. Google classifies it as a "freehost" -- it belongs to a Korean company that provides free or cheap domains, often bulk-registered -- and after automated scanning revealed a high percentage of malware-hosting sites, decided to scrub the entire lot from its results. Of course, this is something like using a nuclear weapon against cockroaches: it causes a lot of collateral damage, while your real target scurries to its next hideout. Still, we wish Google well in its bravely quixotic mission.

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googlegoogle searchGoogleSearchmalwaresearchsearch resultsSearchResultssubdomainSun, 10 Jul 2011 14:17:00 -040021|19986761http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/twitter-announces-integrated-photo-sharing-service-improved-sea/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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Well, it's not exactly a good day for anyone that placed their bets on a Twitter-linked photo service. As expected, Twitter today announced its own integrated photo-sharing service, which will launch "over the next several weeks" and let folks upload an image and attach it directly to their tweet from Twitter.com -- the same functionality is also said to be coming to its official mobile apps "soon." The service isn't completely in-house, though -- Twitter has partnered with Photobucket to actually host the photos. In more immediate news, Twitter has also announced that a "completely new version" of Twitter search is rolling out today. It promises to deliver more relevant results for searches and trending topics, as well as related photos and videos that will be displayed next to your results (which can also be browsed and explored in-depth). Head on past the break for a quick demo video.

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imagesphotobucketphotospicturessearchsearch resultsSearchResultstwittertwitter photostwitter picturesTwitterPhotosTwitterPicturesvideoWed, 01 Jun 2011 14:29:00 -040021|19955697http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/23/yahoo-intros-search-direct-takes-on-google-instant-with-insular/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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Remember Google Instant? Now, Yahoo's got something like that -- it's called Search Direct -- and like Instant, it consists of a search box that quickly and automatically suggests results as you type. Unlike Instant, however, it won't update the entire results page to reflect the outcome of your potential search, but rather just an enlarged search box like the one you see above, providing up to ten suggested queries and three suggested results. That makes it a little bit speedier (we were able to use it on our 3G phone connection quite easily) but also fairly limited in comparison. It's also a bit... ahem... self-serving, as any search that happens to include the same letters as one of Yahoo's own services will promote them above all others in the results -- in fact, only five letters of the alphabet presently bring up anything but a Yahoo website as the first result when typed in solo.

I = iTunes

J = Jennifer Lopez

Q = QVC

X = Xbox 360

Z = Zsa Zsa Gabor

Some of the improved functionality is pretty useful, though, as that Xbox query will instantly bring up prices for the console, and you can type in "movies" or "weather" and your zip code to immediately plan your night out. ("Restaurants" and "food" don't work, though.) Anyhow, Search Direct is in beta. Why not give it a go?

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hands-oninstant searchInstantSearchsearchSearch Directsearch enginesearch enginessearch querysearch resultsSearchDirectSearchEngineSearchEnginesSearchQuerySearchResultsYahooWed, 23 Mar 2011 22:10:00 -040021|19889978http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/08/google-brings-instant-previews-to-mobile-makes-them-actually-us/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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We've never had a use for Google Instant Search on mobile, so we didn't expect much when Google's Instant Previews invaded the smartphone realm as well. You know what? They're actually surprisingly useful. Instead of trying to cram additional information into Google's already-crowded mobile website, Instant Previews adds a little magnifying glass next to most every result instead, and clicking on the magnifier brings up a series of cached thumbnails of each page that you can scroll through in portrait or landscape modes. It's a very visual way of finding what you're looking for, and more importantly, it's quick even over 3G, saving time and mobile bandwidth that would otherwise be spent clicking through links one by one. Rather than decipher that long-winded explanation, though, why don't you try it out for yourself or watch our video demonstration after the break?

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GoogleGoogle InstantGoogleInstanthands-onInstant PreviewInstant PreviewsInstantPreviewInstantPreviewspreviewpreviewsqueryresultresultssearchsearch enginesearch resultsSearchEngineSearchResultsvideoTue, 08 Mar 2011 23:51:00 -050021|19873187http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/14/google-rolls-out-chrome-extension-that-lets-you-block-sites-from/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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Tired of waiting for Google and its algorithms to filter content farms and other shady sites out of your search results? Then you can now finally take things into your own hands thanks to an "experimental" extension that Google has just made available for its Chrome web browser. That works about as straightforwardly as you'd expect -- once installed, you'll simply see a link to block a site along with each search result, and you'll also be able to unblock sites at any time if you go a bit overboard. What's most interesting, however, is that Google says it's going to study the feedback it gets from extension and that it will consider using it as a potential ranking signal for its search results.

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blockblockingbrowserchromechrome extensionChromeExtensionextensionfiltergooglepersonal blocklistPersonalBlocklistsearchsearch enginesearch resultsSearchEngineSearchResultsweb browserWebBrowserMon, 14 Feb 2011 21:08:00 -050021|19843891http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/13/nyt-uncovers-the-tawdry-seedy-tale-of-the-seo-games-of-j-c-pen/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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The New York Times has run an incredibly detailed piece about a feat of Google search engine gaming which seems to have been done by or for JC Penney. We won't bore you with SEO basics -- we're pretty sure you've got those down already -- but suffice to say that The Times noticed that the retailer was at the top of Google's search results for many more terms than seemed possible or natural, so they started to do some digging. What they found was that thousands of links had been placed on what were essentially spam sites all over the web, resulting in the retailer ruling the Google juice for terms such as "little black dress," and even super generic ones like "rugs" and "bedding." This is one of the dreaded kinds of 'black hat' optimization that Google frowns upon, because it's so obviously cheating, and it's punishable by a massive sinking of the offending site's ranking in results (which is, of course, not the desired effect).

JC Penney unsurprisingly denies knowing anything about it, and no evidence exists to suggest it was directly involved, so on Wednesday, Google began 'corrective action' to bring Penney's results back to planet earth. One example -- before the action was taken, JC Penney held the number one spot for the search term 'living room furniture,' and after it stood at number 68 -- is enough to show the awesome power Google holds over the results it delivers, but the story also serves to show how truly broken search is, as well as Google's seeming nonchalance about the issue. Hit up the source link for the full story.

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cheatinggoogleinternetjc penneyJcPenneysearch engine optimizationsearch enginessearch resultsSearchEngineOptimizationSearchEnginessearchingSearchResultsseoseo gamingSeoGamingSun, 13 Feb 2011 15:43:00 -050021|19841854http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/01/google-responds-bing-recycles-search-results-and-wed-like-it/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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Google accused Microsoft of copying search results this morning, and the company's sticking to its guns: in response to Microsoft's firm denial -- "We do not copy Google's results" -- it's released another tiny batch of evidence to the contrary and a call for Microsoft to discontinue the practice for good. Mind you, Google search engineer Amit Singhal doesn't explicitly call out its competitor for "copying" results -- rather, "recycling" them through a clever combination of Microsoft Internet Explorer and the Bing Toolbar -- but the message is clear. Google wants you to view its search results as the originals, and doesn't really care how sincere Microsoft's flattery might be.

Those crazy cats at Google have been tinkerin' with the search results quite a bit lately: in addition to the old standbys (malware notifications, updated image search), the company has recently rolled out Instant Search, Instant Preview... and now? That's right: hacked site notifications in the search results. According to the Webmaster Central blog, the company uses "a variety of automated tools to detect common signs of a hacked site," and if you have a Webmaster Tools account you'll even be notified of the breach. Hit the source link for more info.

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googlegoogle webmaster centralgoogle webmaster toolsGoogleWebmasterCentralGoogleWebmasterToolshackhackedhacked site notificationHackedSiteNotificationinternetmalwaresearch resultsSearchResultswebmaster centralwebmaster toolsWebmasterCentralWebmasterToolsSun, 19 Dec 2010 09:06:00 -050021|19768731http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/14/google-under-fire-for-promoting-own-content-ahead-of-competing-w/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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This isn't exactly a new allegation, but the idea's spreading fast: Google is tuning search results to favor itself, and perhaps that's not entirely fair. Though the European Union is already investigating Google for potential antitrust violations, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal cites several US businesses that aren't too happy themselves, claiming that Google Places, Product Search and the like took a big chomp out of their traffic. Google's defense, as usual, rests on its secret algorithms, which it claims aren't rigged in any way, adding that the prominent placement of location- and product-based search results are just a way to get users quicker answers to their queries. If you type in "day spa nyc," you're looking for some catered suggestions, right? And what of those who argue differently?Well, obviously they're in league with Microsoft.

Well, it looks like that "entirely legal" workaround to Google's censorship woes in China may not have been the answer the company hoped it was. Faced with the possibility of China revoking its license to operate in the country (in addition to blocking the site), Google has now stopped automatically redirecting Chinese users to its Hong Kong website and is simply presenting them with a link to Google.com.hk instead. What's more, Google has now also starting hosting some content on Chinese servers again, including maps, music and translation services that it says cannot be censored, and which can be accessed on Google.com.hk from within mainland China. Google will continue to host its main search operations on servers in Hong Kong, however, and it still remains to be seen if these changes will be enough to ensure it keeps its license -- China will reportedly decide that on Wednesday.

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censorshipchinagooglegoogle.cngoogle.com.hkhong kongHongKongsearchsearch enginesearch resultsSearchEngineSearchResultsTue, 29 Jun 2010 13:23:00 -040021|19535534http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/12/google-to-stop-censoring-chinese-search-results-soon-china-wa/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is making headway with its plans to stop filtering search results in China. Quoting Eric Schmidt as saying that "something will happen soon," the latest report is that Google is engaged in negotiations with multiple government agencies in China, and the likeliest scenario at this point is that the search giant will remain in the People's Republic, though it may be in a slightly altered state. "There will be a way for Google to not pull out 100%," says a source familiar with the ongoing discussions, who expects that El Goog will find a patchwork arrangement by which it'll be able to maintain some parts of its business running while no longer adhering to China's censorship fiat. For its part, China is keeping up its tough posturing, with the latest statement from its IT ministry describing Google's plans as "unfriendly and irresponsible" and warning that the company will have to bear the consequences of its actions. What appears certain at this point, however, is that there'll be no going back to censored Google search results, which is a win in our books whatever the final outcome.